Almost 12 months on, their fears have been fully realised, with Slipper's dubious private life eventually costing him everything - his career, his reputation and all those wonderful perks that came with the trappings of the Speaker's office. All gone.

After a political career that spans nearly three decades, Slipper stepped down from the high office with an emotional speech to parliament. It was wrenching theatre.

But it should never have come to this.

Slipper's history of repeatedly abusing the public purse - he has repaid more than $20,000 he wrongly claimed in family travel entitlements - should have rubbed him out from high office.

Over the years, Slipper has been forced to justify a travel and expenses bill that was often two or three times the amount of other backbench MPs. He loved the good life and did little to disguise it, relying on the protection of a supine Liberal Party to cover his tracks.

As well, Slipper has often found himself in the media for all the wrong reasons - falling asleep in parliament while the Indonesian President addressed the chamber, locking himself in a disabled toilet, being thrown off a Qantas flight for being unruly, and earning the ire of his own colleagues for his drinking habits.

He brought colour to the Parliament, no more so than when he donned the traditional barrister's gown and revived the traditional Speaker's walk soon after he was installed.

He put the pomp into Parliament but revelled in the limelight, and earned plaudits for the way he chaired the always unruly, combative House of Representatives.

Slipper won't be remembered for that, of course. Instead the allegations of sexual harassment - outlined in lurid detail through the Federal Court - will dominate his political epitaph.

The Speaker no longer wears clothes. He is a shattered man and the Labor MPs who a year ago were clapping each other on the back know the Government's hold on power is back to wafer thin.